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Abstract:
The Integrated Plate Boundary Observatory Chile (IPOC) in northern Chile has been monitoring the largest seismic gap along the
South American subduction zone for 10 years. When IPOC was initiated, it has been 130 years the last great earthquake in the
region
had occurred. And since then the Iquique gap had been accumulating a slip deficit along a >500 km segment of the plate
boundary. Since IPOC’s inception two large events, the 2007 M 7.7 Tocopilla and the M 8.1 2014 Iquique earthquakes, have
broken
parts of the gap. Both events were well recorded by IPOC, produce valuable data and advance our understanding of the
subduction megathrust earthquake cycle. Last year, the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) has been extending
IPOC with the GeoSEA ocean bottom observatory. In this ambitious project deformation will be measured where it cannot be
picked up by land-based instruments, i. e. far offshore near the subduction trench. This will open the crucial updip section of the
subduction plate boundary to research. IPOC has thus demonstrated the necessity of long-term monitoring to observe slow or
rare
events, but also that tenacity and patience pay off.
